What it’s like living in a school bus conversion

Have you ever thought about living in a school bus conversion? More people are choosing to live in a school bus rather than a traditional RV. Converting a school bus gives people more flexibility when it comes to designing their living space.

School buses are built to carry children, which means they have an extra level of safety and hardy construction over traditional RVs.

Plus, a school bus conversion is upcycling at its best – taking something that’s no longer used for its original purpose and giving it a new one. It’s also the ultimate DIY project, which involves lots of learning, building and materials.

The result can be a gorgeous tiny home with your own touches, perfect for road tripping across the United States.

Why are people choosing a school bus conversion?

Derek and Amy Cobia of The Frugal RVer didn’t start out with a school bus conversion. Their first RV was a large 5th wheel camper hauled with a pick-up truck. They hoped to save money and travel, but soon realized it wasn’t going to happen.

“After living in it for a year we realized we weren’t cutting as many costs as we wanted and we weren’t traveling,” said Amy. “Plus, I couldn’t put my touch on the RV and that bothered me. Even hanging a picture wasn’t easy.”

Derek agreed. “The RV introduced us to the lifestyle so it’s hard to regret that move, but financially, it was a big mistake because we thought our RV could go anywhere. It couldn’t. We ended up paying $700 per month camping on top of the payment for our truck and RV.”

They wanted something off-grid and small enough to have a good turning radius.

So, they turned their attention toward living in a bus rv conversion.

www.thefrugalrver.com

“School buses have steel-ribbed frames that go all the way the length of the bus so it’s almost indestructible in its design because it carries kids,” said Derek. “The more I researched, the more I realized we could have a quality bus RV conversion for fairly cheap.”

How they designed their school bus conversion

They two started looking at school buses to convert and found one for just $3,000 and 27 feet in length. They started brainstorming ways to transform their rig into a tiny home.

“We’re both bath people and that was a huge part of it,” Derek said. “We miss our bath from the house. We had a big garden tub and we’d sit in there and drink wine and it was a stress-reliever. That was a huge priority, which is why we have a massive bath that takes up 15% of our home.”

www.thefrugalrver.com

Their budget was $15,000, including the school bus, and the couple thinks they may have gone a little over, but still ended up under $20,000.

They have everything hooked up for solar – the electrical system alone was $6,000.

“We went small (27 feet in length), because we wanted to get off the beaten path camping,” said Derek “Our biggest goal was to be self-sustainable and be able to live very cheaply. We realized quickly with RVs that we’d have to tie into the grid, so we decided to go off-grid indefinitely. Our solar panels can last three weeks.”

He said its harder to maneuver the bigger school bus campers, so some people who buy those feel frustration.

“We lived the RV lifestyle and knew we didn’t need much and were going minimalist,” Derek said. “So a school bus conversion was perfect for us.”

www.thefrugalrver.com

The school bus camper even includes a little bed for their 2-year-old daughter, who so far is loving the skoolie life.

“She gets excited when she sees it,” Amy said. “We have her car seat set up on the school bus so she can see out the front windows and the side windows. The windows roll down and blow fresh air and she loves it.”

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The blue school bus, another school bus conversion

www.skoolielove.com

Patrick Schmidt of Skoolie Love was living in Seattle when he first wanted to buy a school bus to convert into an RV. He searched Craigslist for days, eventually finding a 34-foot blue school bus for sale in California. It had once belonged to a church.

So, he flew to get it and got a good deal.

“I bought it with just 68,000 miles on it. It was for sale for $5,500 initially, but when I told the pastor I wanted to travel and expand my life and have adventures, he was thrilled and sold it to more for just $4,500,” Patrick said.

To qualify as an RV, the school bus camper needed a few things.

A bed, a way to cook, a way to provide cooling and heating. He decided to install a hot plate and plumbing for a toilet, water and a shower. Now, it’s basically an entire apartment, 189 square feet on an awesome school bus conversion.

“I then traveled for two months,” Patrick said. “I saw 36 states and went 20,000 miles in my skoolie conversion. I didn’t want to do the rat race anymore, I wanted to see how else you could live. I wanted a place to call my own.”

The downside of living in a school bus conversion

www.skoolielove.com

While Patrick enjoyed his newfound freedom, he also found it challenging to live in a school bus conversion. Many campgrounds only want RVs, or vehicles less than 10 years old. School buses are conspicuous to park on city streets. If you want to settle down in a big city in a skoolie, it’s not easy finding a place to legally park it.

“Some big cities don’t even allow tiny homes. They want you to have a foundation and take the wheels off,” he said. “Then, I looked into buying a plot of land to park the bus on. But you find other hurdles there. In some residential areas, you can only park for 30 or 90 days as its residentially zoned. They want you to prove you’re going to build something, not just camping.”

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He said finding insurance for a school bus conversion is also a challenge.

“It’s such a heartache. For them, it’s a liability. They don’t know how you did the plumbing, whether it will light on fire at a campground, will it leak going down the road,” he said. “Initially I paid $500 for a year, but then they wanted $800 for six months, and they kept raising it or changing it. It became such a problem that I was telling people not to get into buying a school bus, it will be stressful and difficult.”

Why he wouldn’t recommend living in a school bus conversion full time

www.skoolielove.com

Patrick said he’d be the first to tell someone not to live in a school bus conversion.

“I’m going to tell them ‘no’,” he said. “It’s because of the insurance, knowing that when you’re driving around you could get a flat tire. You need to have savings. You have to be aware that you live in a bus and will have to park in weird areas sometimes. I’ve woken up a lot at night. One time these kids were walking by and wanted to climb a ladder up to the roof. I was wide awake, in the back bedroom wondering if they were going to climb it, but luckily, nothing happened.”

He said the bus only gets 7 to 9 miles per gallon, which is very expensive if he wants to keep moving and traveling. So, he started a business selling t-shirts, where you can see here.

He does hope that the more people who live in a school bus camper, the more that things will change. Maybe cities will be more welcoming to school buses. Maybe insurance companies will offer cheaper policies. Maybe there will be better places to park.

Maybe in the future, we’ll see just as many school bus tiny homes as we’ll see school buses taking kids to school. You never know!

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About Kristin Hanes

Kristin Hanes is a journalist and writer who lives on a sailboat and in a Chevy Astro van in San Francisco. She worked in radio news for 15 years before a massive layoff in 2016. Kristin has written articles about alternative living published in Good Housekeeping, Business Insider, Marie Claire, SF Gate and The Bold Italic, among others.

I’m in the PNW (Pacific North West) and have been looking into medium sized Skoolie’s for many years.
Parking the beast is my biggest issue!! It seems like parking for a period of time is just way to expensive!
I prefer not to live via Wally World and Rest Stops. The boonie’s are nice but limited as well. I guess there is no way around the issues of maintenance, parking and insurance. Apartment rent would be cheaper combined with a regular car to get out and see various sites. I’m really bummed.

Yeah skoolies do seem to have their downsides. They are nice and big, like an apartment, but I think parking would be a pain. I think I’d give a vote for a van if I was going to have something for the road.

I’m using my Suburban at the moment. It serves as shelter and is good on fuel.

I’ve used a Conversion Van for a while and it’s still pretty cramped. Perhaps a high top van?

A bit more space like a small Bus or Step Van will be more comfortable, but stealth camping still has its drawbacks. Nothing is perfect and it’s about lifestyle. It all seems to come down to budget and time. What doesn’t?

Totally! I really would like a conversion van…a high-top would be nice for standing room, but one van life lady I know drives a Ford Transit Connect she got for $11,000. Usually, my boyfriend and I roadtrip and sleep in a Prius, so anything will feel roomier to me, haha!

Thank you for the article, my son is doing the same. He will be driving cross country from AR to WA. I understand finding a parking is a nightmare. Is there a list of schoolie friendly parking options please?

That’s a galvanized stock tank for watering livestock and horses. Any farm and ranch store like Tractor Supply, Atwoods, etc will either carry them or be able to get you one. They come in several sizes, run 2 ft high. I have one that’s 6 ft long like that, and they also make round ones that I think would be perfect for a shower base. There’s a drain in the side along the bottom edge so you’d need to put in a floor drain.

I am still working on my tiny kitchen, but thinking ahead for my tiny bathroom. I see from the pictures you have a galvanized stock tub. I want one, but would like to paint it to give it a bolder statement. Plus the local Tractor supply stock tubs come with a logo on them I would like to cover. I was wondering what did you use to coat the inside of your stock tub?

Looks like it has been awhile since anyone has commented here. Just dropped off to nothing. Anyway, to share our experience with the “skoolie” life. We have lived in our bus for 16 years, and loved most every moment of that lifestyle. “Full Timers” is how we described ourselves. We actually owned two buses. The first was a 1980 Gillig, 78 passenger with a 250 Cummins, 5speed manual transmission. We lived and traveled in it for 10 years. Then we got a deal on a 88 Blue Bird which had more floor space(38′) inside. We both did all the conversion work ourselves. The learning curve went up after the Gillig. Insurance seems to be a big problem, but we were with State Farm insured as an R.V. We took our agent for a long ride (200) miles, and wrote up a policy showing us as a motor home. Even with the wood burning stove we only paid $ 325 a year.

I am wondering if you need the CDL with Passenger rating to drive a school bus conversion or if you can get away with a regular drivers license?
i am looking at living in a bus conversion because i am tired of paying someone rent and having loud neighbors with their loud music and kids running around.

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[…] living in a step van. She looked at Mercedes Sprinter vans and decided they were too expensive. And school buses were hard to find with low enough mileage. When she learned about step vans, she decided that was […]

Hi, I'm Kristin Hanes! I live in a sailboat and in a van, and am editor-in-chief of The Wayward Home, a site all about a new type of American Dream. Stick around to learn about campervans, RV living, sailboats and tiny homes. Head to my About Me page to learn more.

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